Part 9 (1/2)
The Sub-Treasury is a handsome white marble building, located at the corner of Wall and Na.s.sau streets. The Treasury is built in the Doric style of architecture; and its ma.s.sive flight of steps and handsome portico present a striking appearance. It is built in the most substantial manner, and has an entrance at the rear on Pine street. The interior is tastefully arranged, and ma.s.sive iron gratings protect the employees from surprise and robbery. The vaults are burglar-proof. This is the princ.i.p.al depository of the Government, and millions of dollars are always in its vaults.
THE CUSTOM HOUSE.
The Custom House was built for and formerly used as the Merchants'
Exchange. It is situated at the corner of Wall and William streets, and is a large, handsome, granite edifice. The colonade at the front entrance and the rotunda are well worth seeing.
BANKING HOUSES.
Just below the Custom House is the handsome marble building of Brown Brothers, bankers, one of the model houses of New York, as regards both the firm and the edifice. The Messrs. Brown are regarded as the most reliable and accomplished operators in the street. Across the way, in a dingy granite building, is the office of August Belmont & Co., the American agents of the Rothschilds, and bankers on their own account.
Jay Cooke & Co. occupy the fine marble building at the corner of Wall and Na.s.sau streets, opposite the Treasury, and there conduct the New York branch of their enormous business. Fisk & Hatch, the financial agents of the great Pacific Railway, are a few steps higher up Na.s.sau street. Henry Clews & Co. are in the building occupied by the United States a.s.say Office. Other firms, of more or less eminence, fill the street. Some have fine, showy offices, others operate in dark, dingy holes.
THE STOCK EXCHANGE.
The Stock Exchange is located on Broad street, to the south of Wall street. It is a fine white marble edifice, extending back to New street, which is also taken up with brokers' offices. There is an entrance on Wall street, but the main building is on Broad street. It contains the ”Long Room,” the ”The New York Stock Exchange,” the ”Mining Board,” the now obsolete ”Petroleum Board,” and the ”Government Board.” All sorts of stocks are bought and sold in this building.
”Erie” and ”Pacific Mail” are the most attractive to the initiated, and the most disastrous as well.
The Chamber of the Board of Stock Brokers is a large, handsomely furnished apartment, somewhat like a lecture room in appearance. Each broker has a seat a.s.signed to him. Outsiders are not admitted to the sessions of the board, but any one may communicate with a member by handing his card to the doorkeeper, who will at once call out the gentleman. The sessions of the Board are presided over by a President, but the work is done by a Vice-President, who from ten o'clock until one, calls over the list of stocks, and declares the sales. Each day a list of stocks to be put in the market is made out, and no others can be sold during the sessions. The Board has the right to refuse to offer any stocks for sale, and a guarantee is required of the party making the sale. The members of the Board are men of character, and their transactions are fair and open. They are required to fulfil all contracts in good faith, however great the loss to themselves, on pain of expulsion from the Board, and an expelled member cannot be reinstated. The entrance fee is three thousand dollars. Persons wis.h.i.+ng to become members are required to make their applications at certain times. This is publicly announced, and if any one can bring and sustain an accusation affecting the integrity of the applicant, he is not admitted.
Ordinarily the sale of the stocks offered, proceeds in a monotonous, humdrum manner, but when ”Erie,” or ”Pacific Mail,” or any other favorite stock is called, each man springs to his feet. Bids come fast and furious, hands, arms, hats, and canes are waved frantically overhead to attract the attention of the presiding officer. The most intense excitement prevails throughout the room, and the shouts and cries are deafening. Sales are made with the utmost rapidity, and the excitement is kept up at the highest point as long as any thing of interest is offered. If a sale is contested, the president names the purchaser, and his decision is final, unless revoked by an instantaneous vote of the Board.
THE OPEN BOARD.
The Open Board of Stock Brokers meet in the second story of a handsome brown stone building adjoining the Stock Exchange. Their sessions are from ten until one. The business of the Board is similar to that of the Stock Exchange, and is dispatched with as much precision, quickness, and clamor.
THE GOLD ROOM.
Descending from Broad street to the bas.e.m.e.nt of the building used by the ”Open Board,” we find ourselves in a long, dimly lighted pa.s.sage- way, which leads us into a small courtyard. As we emerge into this yard, we hear a confused hum above our heads, which grows louder as we ascend the steep stairway before us. Pa.s.sing through a narrow, dirty entry, we open a side door, and our ears fairly ache with the yells and shrieks with which we are startled. For a moment we think we are about to enter a company of lunatics, but we pa.s.s on rea.s.sured, and the next instant stand in the Gold Room.
This is a handsome apartment, in the style of an amphitheatre, with a fountain in the centre. A gallery runs around the upper part, and several telegraph offices are connected with the room. There are but few benches. The members of the Board are always too much excited to sit, and seats are only in the way. Though the main entrance is on Broadway, the Gold Room really fronts on New street. During the sessions of the Board, it is filled with an excited, yelling crowd, rus.h.i.+ng about wildly, and, to a stranger, without any apparent aim. The men stamp, yell, shake their arms, heads, and bodies violently, and almost trample each other to death in the violent struggle. Men, who in private life excite the admiration of their friends and acquaintances by the repose and dignity of their manner, here lose their self- possession entirely, and are more like maniacs than sensible beings.
Few members of either the Stock or Gold Boards operate for themselves.
They generally buy and sell for outside parties, from whom they require a guarantee at the outset, and charge a fair commission on the sale for their services. Members have confidence in each other, for they know that no one can afford to be dishonest. Expulsion and financial ruin and disgrace are the swift and inflexible punishments of bad faith.
There are many persons, whose transactions in the stock and gold markets amount to millions of dollars each year, who cannot enter these boards as members. They are regarded as unsafe, and their pet.i.tions are invariably rejected. They usually operate through regular members.
CURBSTONE BROKERS.
Any one who can pay one hundred dollars a year for the privilege, is allowed to operate in the ”Long Room,” as the lower floor of the Stock Exchange is called. His capital may be one, one hundred, or one thousand dollars, but if he pays his dues regularly, no one is allowed to molest him. No rules or regulations bind these operators. The honest man and the rogue mingle freely together. Persons dealing with them have no guarantee of their good faith, and must look out for rough treatment at their hands. They overflow the hall, crowd the steps and sidewalks, and extend out into the street. From this circ.u.mstance they are termed ”curbstone brokers,” a name which will probably cling to them. A few of these operators are men of integrity, who being unable to enter the regular boards, are compelled to conduct their business in this way. They have regular places of business in some of the neighboring streets, and are as fair and upright in their dealings as any member of either of the boards; but the great majority are simply sharpers, men who will not meet their losses, and who will fleece any one, who falls into their hands, out of his last cent.
STOCK GAMBLING.
It has been remarked that the men who do business in Wall street have a prematurely old look, and that they die at a comparatively early age.
This is not strange. They live too fast. Their bodies and minds are taxed too severely to last long. They pa.s.s their days in a state of great excitement. Every little fluctuation of the market elates or depresses them to a fearful extent, even though they may not be conscious of it at the time. At night they are either planning the next day's campaign, or hard at work at the hotels.
[Ill.u.s.tration: United States Sub-Treasury.]
On Sunday their minds are still on their business, and some are to be seen hard at work in their offices, where they think they are safe from observation. Body and mind are worked too hard, and are given no rest.